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How-to get RichText from LongText AppendOnly ColumnHistory()?

Dick Watson 106 Reputation points
2025-07-25T22:26:34.42+00:00

Is there a workaround to get the HTML-ish RFT from ColumnHistory() of a LongText field set with RichText format and AppendOnly versioning?

I'm not trying to defend AppendOnly vs better solutions. Or storing HTML-ish RTF in Access. Just asking if anybody knows a way to get the RTF versions. I've only been able to get the plain text versions using ColumnHistory() even though rs!myLongTextField.Value returns the HTML-ish RTF as expected.

Attachment and MultiValue fields provide usable ways to get the (quirk-ish, not DBMS Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, internally FK), data with Set rsvals = rs!MVField.value and Set rsattachments = rs!AttachmentField.Value. If the AppendOnly versions have a similar method--even if undocumented--I haven't found it. (I did try Set rsvers = rs!RTF_Ver_LongText.Value but it didn't work.)

Thanks in advance for any thoughts on how to accomplish this!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Access | Development
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  1. DBG 11,381 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-07-26T15:41:09.24+00:00

    I don't have the answer handy but maybe check if the column history info is stored in a hidden table just like MVFs and Attachments are. If so, perhaps you can get the RTF from there. Just a thought...

  2. DBG 11,381 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-07-28T15:08:40.82+00:00

    Okay, seeing the article again (thanks, Karl), I remember it now. If you can send me a sample db with RTF column history, I could try to see if I can pull them. Colin's sample in his article seems to be using plain text (or at least that's what it looks like), so I can't tell from that if the RTF tags are available or not.

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